A few days have passed since Zhao Guan's family came to Ma Fenshui to express their emotions. As the weather started to get warmer obviously, the ice on Fenshui became thinner and thinner and could no longer be relied on. Folks also began to build temporary pontoons on a large scale, or simply build some

Semi-permanent floating bridge.

At the same time, within a few days, the size of the camp under Taiyuan City increased instead of decreasing.

Ten thousand troops were sent out, but several thousand troops were gathered from the rear to clear out a certain city. More importantly, with the destruction of Taiyuan City, the powerful military station-style logistics line built along the Fen River was finally established.

Construction continued in the Taiyuan Basin to the north of Queshu Valley, and more civilians and logistics supplies began to be transported from the river south of Queshu Valley and Linfen Basin along the Fen River.

Not only that, as Yue Fei's troops killed Wang Bolong and breached Yuancheng, the main force of the Jin army gathered together and marched northward. It is conceivable that Henan and Hezhong, which were under heavy martial law during the winter, were reopened, and more

Supplies will continue to be delivered along this supply line after the short-term floods of the Yellow River.

In the short term, Taiyuan will still be a huge military camp, command post and logistics base, and it will also be the base camp before the next battle.

However, as Zhao Jiu and many commanders have realized, under the stimulation of the huge victory and the almost crazy excitement from the front and rear, some discordant battle reports began to be collected from various places.

In the past few days, the news that the Jingxing attack was thwarted and that Taiyuan Prefecture and Longde Prefecture failed to surrender were among the congratulatory messages from various parties and the victory military reports from a wider sweep of strongholds.

, it’s not something to worry about at all.

However, on the eighth day of the first lunar month, the day when Fenshui Center began to freeze for the first time, someone finally broke the first big news after the new year.

In Wenshui County, a large Jin Army stronghold closest to Taiyuan, I don't know if they are worried about the increasing number of reinforcements and have a mentality of competing for credit, or they are simply underestimating the enemy, or they may feel that this place is too close to Taiyuan and they want to fight for a living.

For the Zhao Guan family, the most likely thing is that the other strongholds are progressing smoothly, but this is obviously one of the counties closest to Taiyuan, but it has been difficult to get there, a bit difficult...

In short, Chen Yanzhang, the local commander of the left army of the imperial camp who was responsible for commanding various troops to siege the city, gave up the step of launching artillery to smash the city when the siege position was about to be completed. Instead, he listened to the intelligence of the Han army in the city and led the troops personally at night.

The team climbed into the city for a sneak attack, and the result was that the dignified commander of the first division was shot to death in the urn city by random arrows from the Jin army after falling for a clichéd trick of pretending to surrender.

Moreover, since the war began, many senior generals at the commander-level of the Song Army have disappeared.

For example, Guo Zhen, who was beheaded in the rear of the Imperial Camp in public, Monk Lu and Zhao Cheng, who were dismissed and demoted due to lax military discipline, defeat, and injuries in the Imperial Camp, and the former soldier of the Imperial Camp who initiated the Northern Expedition of the Song Army and was defeated.

Then Wang Gang died... However, all these commanders, even Wang Gang, were demoted first and then died in battle.

In other words, Chen Yanzhang was the first Song Army commander to die on the job since the war began, and he died in such a cowardly manner, which directly caused a shock to the entire army in the Taiyuan base camp.

Fortunately, although Chen Yanzhang's death was relatively easy, there was already Yang Congyi, the commander of the imperial camp and the rear army outside Wenshui City, and the reinforcements he brought, so he did not lose his backbone.

Next, after realizing that the siege had not been broken even after killing the enemy general, the man in the city lost his patience and immediately mobilized elite troops to try to break out. But this time, there were no surprises or miracles.

Encirclement, especially when Li Shifu's Dangxiang Qingqi was nearby, the Jin army was completely wiped out directly outside the city.

When the news came, Wu Jie, who was in charge of the daily operations of the base camp, felt relieved and ordered the generals of the Jin Army to be summoned to the public, but he did not say much about Chen Yanzhang... He seemed to be concerned about the glory of the belt of Han Shizhong, the king of Yan'an County, who was the first person in the army.

.

In this regard, the Zhao Guan family also remained silent... This made many handsome ministers and generals feel relieved but also a little nervous... I can only say that fortunately, this matter happened suddenly and ended quickly.

However, the news is not over yet.

On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, only three days before the Shangyuan Festival, the Fen River had completely melted. An additional issue of the Di newspaper full of praise for Taiyuan and the victory of Daming Palace was rushed to Taiyuan, and the envoy also brought

Here's the good news that some sections of the upper reaches of the Yellow River are experiencing severe flooding, and some sections of the river have been reopened to traffic.

This was of course good news, so Zhao Guan's family rarely took the Di newspaper with them, and carried the pony to the bank of Fenshui River. They found a willow tree with branches that were starting to become tender, and read the newspaper under the willow... The only ones accompanying them were Yang Yizhong and Qi Ba

It's just the top ten members of the imperial class.

However, just when Zhao Guan's family saw the congratulatory message written by a certain Taiyuan student, a horseman rode out of Taiyuan City specifically to look for him.

"Official!"

Taira Kiyomori, who was in charge of duty in the city today, came on horseback. He rolled off his horse and opened his mouth to tell the terrible news. "The king's deputy commander was defeated in Pingxingzhai, with more than a thousand casualties!"

"I know." Zhao Guanjia, who was sitting on the horse, was not angry at all. He didn't even raise his head. "It was such a miserable defeat. How was it?"

"In order to let the officials know, according to the military report, Yelu Mawu had been prepared for a long time. He should have divided his troops from Hebei to that place very early. He first deceived and abandoned the stronghold, luring our army to go deep, and Wang Fudu

The Jin army was eager to kill the enemy, but was out of touch with the front and rear. Unexpectedly, the Jin army set up an ambush at the bottle mouth outside the stronghold in advance. They held back and waited until the main force of Wang Futong passed by first. Then they abandoned their horses and fought on foot. They moved out from both sides and burned our army's logistics convoy.

Kill nearly a thousand of my defenders..." Ping Qingsheng, who was on the ground, became more and more careful as he spoke. He looked at Zhao Guan's face before continuing. "Vice Commander Wang noticed something was wrong in the front, so he quickly gave up and pretended to defeat the Jin army, and turned around.

Returning to the Pingxing Stronghold... As a result, the Jin army did not dare to fight anymore and fled directly... But without the baggage, Deputy Commander Wang did not dare to enter again, so he could only stay in the Pingxing Stronghold for a while and write a letter to apologize."

"The main force of our army was lured through the bottle-shaped village, and the rearguard was killed by the Jin army at the mouth of the bottle. All the baggage was lost. As a result, Wang Sheng turned around and came back, but the Jin army dispersed in a rush." ​​Zhao Jiu finally looked up from the Di newspaper,

But he looked around at the attendants, Ban Zhi, and finally fell on Yang Yizhong. "Why do I feel a little weird when I hear this? Zhengfu, you are from Daizhou, and you are the most familiar with Pingxingzhai. What do you think is going on?

What's going on?"

Yang Yizhong has so much military experience that he certainly knows the situation. In addition, there are no key people around today, so he does not cover up and responds directly:

"I take the liberty... It should be that the Jin Army itself is in the process of retreating, so it is in a hurry to prepare for battle, or it may have few troops. In short, its combat power is extremely weak... After a hasty ambush and a successful attack, it has already been used with all its strength. Only then

Don't dare to entangle and flee directly. Otherwise, as long as the Jin army still has the strength to fight, the Jin army will just lock the Pingxing stronghold, and Deputy Wang, who has lost his baggage, will be suffocated to death in Puyinxing."

"That's the truth." Zhao Jiu nodded slowly, thoughtfully.

Perhaps because of his status as a Daizhou native, Yang Yizhong paused for a moment, but he couldn't hold it back and said a few more words: "Guan family, if what I expected is true, Yelu Mawu has the intention."

, he may not be able to stretch his hand so long and so fast... This battle is more like the Daizhou defenders fleeing in a hurry, being forced into a panic, and just swiping back the carbine. And the reason why Deputy Dutong Wang said it was Yelu Ma

Wu did it, firstly, because Yelu Mawu was a famous general who had experienced Nanyang and Yaoshan, and it would not be too embarrassing to be defeated by this person; secondly, it was because Daizhou was another king's deputy capital.

It was captured by Tong (Wang De), and another deputy king, Tong (Wang De), reported victory before, but said that he had wiped out all the defenders in the city... If this matter is forced to be entangled, I am afraid it will cause trouble in front of the officials again.

Come to judge."

"Everything you said is right." Zhao Jiu replied with a sigh. "With one move of the carbine, he killed nearly a thousand people... The two kings and deputy commanders were in charge, one underestimated the enemy and rushed forward, the other exaggerated the victory... Do they think that I don't know these things?

?"

"Everyone is lucky." Yang Yizhong had no choice but to respond, half explaining, half persuading. "What's more, when Wang De reported his victory, the remaining soldiers fled. According to common sense, they should have collapsed directly, but later there were

The organization of the defeated troops did not delay his overall achievements in wiping out the three counties of Xinzhou, Daizhou, and Ninghua in more than ten days, and threatening Yanmen Pass; another example was Wang Shengfeng's apology, loss, and defeat.

I made a mark on the ownership, to save face and smooth communication... So what if the officials knew about it? Should they be punished beyond the standard for such a small detail? Besides, didn't the officials explicitly let Wu Dutong be in charge of the imperial military aircraft and text for the time being?

Are you going to discuss this with the Jiedushi? You have to worry about the faces of the Jiedushers."

Zhao Jiu glanced at the other party and said nothing.

Yang Yizhong suddenly understood and immediately stopped talking... It was obvious that the official meant that those words were exactly what he wanted to say.

On the other side, Ping Qingsheng waited on the ground for a while. Seeing that Zhao Guanjia was silent and Yang Yizhong just waved his hand, he finally woke up and went back to report.

However, Taira Kiyomori turned around and was about to leave, but he met another fellow officer who belonged to the Red Heart Corps. It was Prince Simongu who came to meet him. Under the afternoon spring light, his face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

, Taira Kiyomori was confused, but he didn't ask much, so he just nodded and hurried over.

And Tuoli came to the willow tree, bowed his head, just like Ping Qingmori, and informed Zhao Guan's family of several things that Wu Jie would deal with on his behalf, and then just received the message filed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"The Jin army in Datong Prefecture took the initiative to retreat, and Yanmen Pass was defeated... Then your father marched from the north as a vanguard. He first plundered Dezhou at the foot of Jinhe Mountain, and then wanted to plunder Datong Prefecture. Unexpectedly, he failed to plunder half of the army.

Vice-captain Guo Hao and Wang De led their troops along the Sanggan River together, and the two sides quarreled over this matter... Is this what you mean?" Zhao Jiu thought about it for a while while holding the newspaper on the horse, looking at Tuoli,

His face looked as usual.

"Yes." Tuoli's face turned even darker...Wu Jie asked him to summon him, which seemed to have bad intentions.

"This is a good thing." Zhao Jiu sneered. "After all, the Jin army in Datong has withdrawn, the north is stable, and the Puyinxing army is all in my hands... What do these small details mean?"

I only feel my scalp is numb when I take it off.

He is a Mongolian prince and has been with Zhao Guan's family for three or four years. He is no longer the wild man who only knew riding horses, drinking and looking for women on the grasslands... If the previous affairs of Wang De and Wang Sheng were called small knots, it would be about

It still works, but now it is a major and serious military and political issue.

Especially since he always knew that this official would never tolerate such a thing.

As for the gains and losses of Datong Prefecture, to put it bluntly, even the most stupid person will realize after the defeat of Taiyuan City that it is destined to be a matter of time, rather than a military issue, that everything west of the Taihang Mountains will fall into the hands of the Song army.

"Tiaoli..." Zhao Jiu was silent for a moment, still holding the dibao, but just dropped one hand to one side, and then leaned forward to call the other party.

"I'm here." Tuoli responded quickly and lowered his head at the same time.

"Raise your head." Zhao Guanjia looked a little impatient.

Tuoli didn't hesitate at all, and raised his head again to meet Zhao Guan's gaze.

"I'm actually very angry." Zhao Jiu responded calmly. "But I know that you Mongolians came south with the intention of looting and making a fortune...and there will be a big war soon. I have a lot of strength for Mongolia's cavalry."

It’s for... so I can’t lose my temper at this time. And Tuoli, you have been by my side for a long time, and you know my taboos... If you insist on not being angry, it will make you suspicious... right? "

Tuoli opened his mouth to speak, but had nothing to say. Instead, his forehead was sweating slightly in the cold spring... It seemed that he had run too fast before.

"That's good." Zhao Jiu sat up straight, with an expressionless face, and was good at tempting. "You take my will, go to the north with Academician Mei and Rensheren (Ren Baozhong) to mediate. If you go, don't come back. It's just

Assist your father in the army, and at the same time comfort your father so that he can participate in the war... After the war, your father and I will go to Tokyo to enjoy life. You will be the king of Ximengu... or I will crown you with my own hands! Wait for you to go

Simon Gu, can you still be as ignorant as your father?"

After Tuoli listened in a daze, he was stunned for a moment, then suddenly kowtowed to the ground and swore to the sky: "If I have such a plan, I will not dare to say anything. The Kelie tribe will be the pioneers of the Song Dynasty for generations to come!"

"It doesn't matter." Zhao Jiu picked up the newspaper again. "I don't want generations, and I can't control generations. I am alive. If you don't make any mistakes in your life, you will not be in vain. Go back and report to Wu Jiedu.

, Shao Abban, and Fan Xueshi, I only told them about the coronation after the war."

Tuolii kowtowed heavily again, then staggered away.

As soon as Tuoli left, Yang Yizhong couldn't help but hesitated and said: "The official... can Tuoli be trusted?"
To be continued...